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I had searched about it but still not clear Why it is necessary. I know the description but why do we need Microsoft Expression Blend (I am asking in terms of WPF designing)? What does it have that we don't have in Visual Studio without it.

(I am not asking personal opinions, I am asking what features does it have to contribute usage of Visual Studio or just to Developer?)

Zgrkpnr
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  • **Primarily Opinion Based**. I use Expression Blend to draw Paths, which is much easier in Blend than manually typing the XAML in Visual Studio. – Federico Berasategui Apr 17 '14 at 19:35
  • Paths/vectors, Storyboards, colors/gradients, transforms, effects, exposing control templates, object trees, folks not as xaml savvy who like a nice IDE to hold their hand, basically much, much, much more design friendly. I run it on one screen, and VS on another. But have to agree with HC as to it still being an opinion based question. – Chris W. Apr 17 '14 at 19:46
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    @HighCore "Easiness" is hardly an opinion. Your comment contributes to the answers as well. And the given answer made my mind clear. Before this post I was thinking that Blend was an IDE even though I searched quite a lot. Now I know that it is mostly about design. – Zgrkpnr Apr 17 '14 at 19:51
  • Definitely not opinion-based. Op asks what a tool can do that another tool can't. Geesh. – Crono Dec 09 '19 at 23:41
  • @Crono then it's just too broad. – tevemadar Dec 10 '19 at 00:33

2 Answers2

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The short answer: Blend is a tool for UI designers, while Visual Studio is targeted at developers.

While you indeed can do everything that Blend does within Visual Studio by manually typing code, Blend does have an interface that's more user-friendly for artists and animators, which makes it easier to draw vectors or create animations.

The reason why you'd want to use Blend over VS depends on the job you must do. If you are wearing your artist hat, you may find Blend easier to get the desired results. When you put your developer hat back on, you'll want VS. You must think of these as distinct tools with different sets of features, not as one being a replacement for the other.

Crono
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Blend has a timeline-style storyboard editor, in VS you have to figure out all the keyframes by hand. It is also easier to do vector graphics and 3D layout in Blend.

Basically, any kind of advanced UI design tends to be easier in Blend, and it is easier for artists and other non-developers to use. I would personally never give an artist Visual Studio to design a UI for me (mostly because everything would be broken :) ).

wonea
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BradleyDotNET
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    "because everything would be broken" - whoa there amigo, there's "devigners" around here that would prove that incorrect ;) – Chris W. Apr 17 '14 at 19:51
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    Clearly I have not met these artists :). Of course it was meant in jest (which I think you know, but I should make clear). – BradleyDotNET Apr 17 '14 at 19:52
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    Interrupting=) How can I get Blend? Is it free? I couldn't find even a single download link on the entire internet. – Zgrkpnr Apr 17 '14 at 20:07
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    @Zgrknr, http://stackoverflow.com/a/13114660/2589202 – crthompson Apr 17 '14 at 20:10
  • @BradleyDotNET I think that Blend for VS is the only edition that remains nowadays. There isn't any other AFAIK. – Crono Apr 17 '14 at 20:32
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    @Crono, you are correct. It looks like they stopped releasing the separate version with VS 2013. Thanks for the info! – BradleyDotNET Apr 17 '14 at 20:37